Ed Gebhart: West Chester's Rudy' tough as well as modest

Remember John Furlow? Coached football at old Nether Providence High and later at West Chester University. Furlow was one tough dude. Raised in the appropriately named “Devil’s Pocket” section of Philadelphia, Furlow boxed professionally as a very young man and continued to do so while playing collegiate football for Coach Glenn Killinger at West Chester.

Surely the holier-than-thou drones at the NCAA would have been appalled.

The point is that Furlow knows a tough guy when he sees one. After all, at West Chester he did coach Brian Mulhern from Sun Valley High, Joe Carroll from old St. James and Danny Hale from Upper Darby.

So when Furlow says one of his former players is “pound for pound the toughest kid I ever coached,” you know that lad ranks pretty high up the toughness chart.

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The player Furlow rated so highly is John Scott, whose toughness is exceeded only by his modesty. A backup quarterback and punter at Father Judge High in Philadelphia, Scott didn’t think he’d ever get a chance to play for Coach Jim Bonder at West Chester. “I wanted to be a running back, but I had three things against me,” Scott said. “I was small, slow and dumb.

Weighed about 150 and stood 5-foot-nothing.”

Nonetheless, Scott in time did make the Rams’ varsity squad, although his playing time was sort of limited. “You know the kid they had at Notre Dame who never got in a game?” Scott said.

“His name was Rudy. They even made a movie about him. Well, at West Chester, I was the Rams’ Rudy.”

He took a beating from the first string varsity as a member of the scout team. Never slowed him down. When West Chester was invited to play in the Tangerine Bowl in Florida, members of the scout team were told they wouldn’t be making the trip. “Some of the guys quit right then, “Scott said. “They figured why practice if we’re not going to Florida. I decided to stay and continued to practice.” When the traveling roster came out, Scott’s name was on it.

Scott had learned a lesson, one he probably already knew; and that is, “Never give up.”

That never-give-up philosophy came in handy when Scott was enrolled in Math 101 at West Chester. He failed his first test.

“Let’s face it,” he said. “I was not a good student. But I was determined to stay, so I started taking a tape recorder with me to class. I taped everything and listened to the tape at night. In the dorm hall, I became friendly with math majors and got help from them, too.

“Somehow, from failing I got my grade up to a B+. In the final exam, I scored a 100.

“The next day, the professor called me into his office and asked me if I would consider becoming a math major. I told him, ‘Thanks, but no thanks.’”

Following graduation, Scott and his roommate, John Bailey, accepted positions at The Mitchell School, a private school in Havertown “We decided to start a football program, Scott said. “The school didn’t even have a weight room. We had to build one. John and I had to recruit our players. Our basic guideline was, ‘If the kid’s walking upright, grab him!’”

Scott did a lot of things normal coaches did not do … like driving the bus to take his players to pre-season camp. But all the hard work paid off. How many high school coaches can say one of their players made it to the National Football League?

One of the players Scott and Bailey developed was a young man named Jim Culbreath.

Before his playing days were over, Culbreath had spent three years with the Green Bay Packers.

Next for Scott was a lengthy stay at Upper Darby High, thanks to a chance meeting with Frank Potter, who may have been the greatest quarterback ever at old Ridley Township High, a school renowned for its great quarterbacks. Potter had just been named head football coach at Upper Darby High. He needed a knowledgeable assistant. Scott filled the bill just right.

That began a 40-year journey at Upper Darby, including three years as head coach of the football team and a lifetime as a physical education teacher.

“I really enjoyed my time there,” Scott said. “After a while, I think I got to be pretty good at being a teacher.”

So what’s this “pound-for-pound” tough guy doing these days?

He’s playing with toy trains. Say what?

Read all about it next week.

Ed Gebhart is a retired public relations executive. His column appears Sunday.